Archives January 2009

Yep, it finally is at zero, the end of 8 years of lunacy.  No I didn’t get to see Obama’s inauguration but I’ll catch it on youtube or someplace like that tonight.

On the way home from work on Friday I stopped at Sam’s for some of our bulk items, just like I do every other week.  Typically my shopping trips at Sam’s end in similar way, I am checked out by an individual that has as much personality and energy as a storm drain.  This time was different.  My clerk was a thin lanky Hispanic guy.  He seemed incredibly upbeat, energetic and happy.  He was the type of guy that you couldn’t help but want to engage in conversation. 

After he happily greeted me I noticed that he had a bandage in front of his one ear.  I wondered if he just had it pierced or something.  I asked him what the deal was. “I had a cyst removed, I had the same thing on the other side too.”  He continues “at first I was bummed out about it but now I have a matching set! You can’t let stuff get ya down, ya know?”   I just smiled and shook my head in agreement. I was a bit stupefied that the kid was just so upbeat.  I wondered how in the world someone with such a positive, infectious attitude was working at Sam’s Club.  If he could jam some of positive attitude and energy into a pill I would be first in line to buy it.  What a cool kid.

Saturday morning I knocked out most of the stuff I wanted to get done for the weekend.  My massage was scheduled at 1 pm.  I arrived a couple minutes late.  I was a bit mad cause I didn’t want to waste one minute of being rubbed down.  The last massage I had was with the same woman a year or two ago.  Since I was a return client she didn’t have to go through the awkward “you can leave underwear on or take it off” discussion.  I took it off like last time.

She asked me if I had any trouble areas I wanted her to work on.  I mentioned the tendonitis in my right arm as well as the normal stuff most people complain of, a tight back and shoulders.  I started face down and she went to work.  It is truly a head to toe massage.  It’s a bit awkward for me having a woman other than Ali rubbing my rear end and upper thighs so I tried to break up some of that with minimal conversation.  However the majority of the time was quiet other than the serene music playing in the background.  It felt great, it was all over too soon.  I tipped her 20 bucks.  No Randall, I didn’t ask for a happy ending. 🙂

By the time I got back home I only had an hour or two before I had to head right back out to Ali’s recital.  She was doing the same performance I saw at the end of November but this time it was in the new building the dance school just opened up.  I was sort of rushing to get Nicki’s supper prepared before heading out the door.  I gave no thought to any sort of prep I needed to do to attend a dance recital.

Well once I got there and walked up to the building where other people were waiting to get in I realized I was under-dressed.  I was wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.  I also had nothing in my hand other than a camcorder.  I was surrounded by men in sport coats and women equally dressed up.  There were a handful of low brow, casually dressed people like me but we were severely outnumbered.  I mentioned my empty hand because many of the people were carrying flowers to give to the performers after the show, doh!  I had no idea that this was proper dance recital protocol

I felt like a bit of a dope as I paced around waiting for them to open the doors. I wasted the time by posting to my Facebook page about my situation vai the Iphone.  Finally the doors opened up about 15 minutes later than I expected them to at 6pm.  I saw Ali as I came in and I mentioned to her I felt dumb for not dressing up more.  I’m sure she didn’t care, she was glad I was there to watch her.

I found an open seat on a bench.  On my right was a younger guy that spent more time on his Blackberry than watching the performance.  On my left was a guy whose wife was performing with Ali’s group along with their two children, a young boy and a younger little girl.  The girl was a bit rammy, anxious to see her mommy go on. 

So the director of the school, a Russian guy with a VERY thick accent comes out to start the show.  The amplification and echo from the PA system made it nearly impossible to make out a single sentence.  Finally the show begins.  I sat through several performances by the kids.  They ranged from the very young that can’t follow a move but look very cute trying to do so, to girls in their teens, some of which were pretty good.  Ali’s group came out towards the end of the first set.  Her adult ballet class ranges in age from 20’s to 60’s with all sorts of body types in the mix.  I shot the performance on the camcorder again.  However when you are shooting an event you find yourself concentrating more on keeping the shot in frame as opposed to taking in the performance.  After watching the video back I confirmed that Ali once again did a great job.

Unfortunately, unlike the younger girls, some of which perform in 6 or 7 different acts, Ali’s group only did the one performance.  That meant I had to sit through more than half of the remaining show.  Part of the remaining show was performances by two professionals from the Orlando area, a man and a woman.  Their dance performance was good but the adjective I would most likely use for the performance would be “disturbing”.  The male dancer had on white tights.  I just don’t get it.  The tights leave nothing to the imagination, as I told Ali, if he had a pimple on his ass we would have seen it.  Then of course you have the package in the front that looks like it is neatly stuffed into a ballet version of a jock strap. 

It was just visually disturbing.  As I looked at the crowd I saw many people, both women and men looking away as I was.  At one point the little girl next to me said to her daddy, “I can see his privates….”  Like I said, the couple were great dancers but I know for me personally I never need to see another male ballet performance for the rest of my life unless he is wearing sweat pants.

The show wound up and I greeted Ali.  I told her she did great.  I apologized for not having flowers, again blaming my lack of dance recital experience.  They had a spread of food they set up as part of the grand opening.  However most of it was meat based so Ali wouldn’t have eaten it.  Instead I told her I would pick up Carraba’s to go on the way home.  She headed home in the Camry while grabbed the food, gas for the truck and some roses at the local Publix to atone for my oversight.  She appreciated my belated offering.

Sunday morning I had to get up hella early to go work at the half marathon. Although I wasn’t timing the race, I was was there to assist with the timing and do whatever else was needed.  It was chilly but not raw like it was last year.  I decided to dress for the temps this time so being cold was not an issue.  The winner of the race was an Ethiopian that covered the 13 + miles in 1:03:45.  The finish of the race was actually a two man sprint to the finish, something that is rare.  The second place guy was only a second or two behind.  It’s incredible just how fast these guys can run distance.  They run their 13th mile tons faster than I could ever run a single mile. 

I was at the race site late until after 11 doing disassembly of various parts of the race.  I didn’t expect to be there quite so long.  The last people crossed the finish more than four hours after the start.  On the way home I grabbed lunch as well as stopping to pick up Super Smash Bros for the Wii.  My brother-in-law has been wanting to get some online gaming going with me and this looked like as good of a title as any to try out.

I was quite tired by the time I got home.  It was nice to see that Ali had been quite busy while I was at the race, knocking out almost everything that was left to do around the house.  I greatly appreciated her efforts.  It meant I had a clean slate until the Eagles game at 3.

I think I jinxed the team.  I have been very careful to not speak of the possibility of the team going to the Super Bowl.  I didn’t want to overlook the Cardinals although it was hard to not overlook a team that you stomped by four or five touchdowns on Thanksgiving.  I was running scenarios through my head about what we would do if the Eagles made it to the Bowl, maybe go up to Tampa and try to score tickets or at least tail gate outside the stadium with other Eagles fans.  I thought these things but did not say them out loud.  Well before the game I mentioned these ideas to Ali.  It must have been the kiss of death.

The game was an emotional roller coaster.  The first half the Eagles defense was just plain bad.  When they blitzed Warner beat them every time.  The Cardinals also were able to run the ball effectively, something most teams haven’t been very good at against the Eagles this year.  The Philly offense moved the ball but again fell into the pattern of not being able to cash in with TD’s at the end of drives, instead settling for field goals.  After allowing a ridiculous drive at the end of the first half giving the Cardinals another 3 points, the Birds were down 18, ugh.

I of course was pretty upset with the way the Eagles were playing.  They allowed Larry Fitzgerald to just run wild, even with mentioning before the game how stopping him would be such a focus.  I saw any Super Bowl plans going out the window.  Well during the second half the Eagles did something they don’t normally do well, make adjustments.  They came out and controlled the ball on offense and defensively stuffed Arizona.  By the time mid fourth quarter rolled around the Eagles had erased the 18 point deficit and were leading 25-24.  The odd total was a result of David Akers having a shitty day with a missed field goal and missed extra point. (along with a kick off out of bounds)

All of a sudden a Super Bowl berth was once again a real possibility.  All the Eagles had to do was have their defense stop the Cardinals like they had been doing all second half, get the ball back and run out the clock.  It didn’t happen.  Instead of delivering in the clutch, the Eagles defense fell on their face allowing the Cardinals to march down the field while eating up tons of clock, culminating in a touchdown and two point conversion that gave the Cardinals a full touchdown advantage with a little more than two minutes remaining.  The D really, REALLY choked hard on that series.

So now the Eagles had their back against the wall in a situation Donovan is typically pretty terrible at, the two minute drill.  The Eagles have never been good at running a hurry up offense.  They also have a bad habit of burning timeouts early, leaving them short handed when they need them the most.  I knew the Eagles were in trouble.  To my surprise they actually moved the ball and made it across the 50 into Cardinals territory.  Then the drive stalled and the Birds found themselves in a do or die 4th & 10.

Donovan threw to Curtis who appeared to be more or less dragged down by the falling Cardinal defender.  Curtis couldn’t make the catch as he fell to his knees.  The gutless official kept the flag in his pocket on what appeared to be pretty blatant pass interference, game over.  My instant emotion was anger.  I was pissed off at the official, I was pissed off at the Eagles defense  and the team in general for once again ripping my heart out.  I really tried to temper my disappointment, reminding myself that a month ago the idea that the team would even be in the conference championship game seemed like total lunacy. 

Now that a couple days have passed I am better.  The team went on an incredible run and also benefited from some incredible luck along the way to get there.  The team provided lots of excitement for me over the past month.  It just would have been nice to see the fairytale played all the way out to a joyous, miraculous conclusion. Oh well.

There was plenty of blame to be passed around for the loss.  It is hard to point a big fat finger at the defense that was primarily responsible for getting them as far as they have.  There is no way to deny that they came up small this time around and totally whiffed when it mattered the most during that last crushing Cardinal drive.  Like I mentioned before, David Akers dumped 4 points in the shitter and kicked out of bounds allowing the Cardinals great starting field position. Quintin Demps, wtf were you thinking on that late hit?  It was so blatant it was ridiculous.  Ditto for the lineman who almost caused a disastrous turn over trying to field a short kick off sailing out of bounds.  He had no business being anywhere near that ball.

As Troy Aikamn repeatedly pointed out, McNabb’s accuracy was once again put on center stage or lack there of.  His inability to lead receivers on his passes turned potential game breaking plays into short gains instead.  However this has always been Donovan’s MO, he will never be a pinpoint passer, especially on crossing routes, he is dreadful on those.  Of course his receivers dropped very catchable balls on several occasions so the fault does not sit only in his corner.  Brian Westbrook came up very small in this game as well.  However he has basically been injured the entire season, what can you do?

Oh well, I’m over it.  Another near miss season, we have had a whole bunch of them during Andy Reid’s tenure, I’m used to it by now.

Our Monday was very low key.  I wanted to accomplish one project, cleaning out the inside of the storage shed which we knocked out in a couple hours during the afternoon.  Outside of that project I played games on the computer, Wii and Iphone (damn you Homey for telling me about Fieldrunners) and watched tv including episode 1 of the new Battlestar Galactica season (fantastic)  As usual, a day of not doing much of anything productive left me feeling a bit glum.

Last night I finished Too Fat to Fish.  I would say overall I am disappointed in the book, I expected more.  Yes it is filled with some very graphic details of just how bad Artie’s substance abuse problem is.  However the book has huge gaps in the timeline that are annoying.  The book certainly can’t be termed a biography in my opinion, far too much is left out.  For some reason I expected Artie’s writing style to a bit more polished than his speaking style.  I know even though he is not college educated, he is an intelligent guy with a borderline incredible memory.  For some reason I expected his writing style to a be a bit better for some reason.  It’s a quick read so at least I didn’t have to invest tons of time into it.  Many of the stories I had already heard recanted on the Stern show in slightly less detail.  That maybe contributed to my lack of enthusiasm about it. Artie will surely be dead within the next few years if he doesn’t wake up.

After having a week off during my Dad’s visit I have the pleasure of stepping right back into a three day weekend thanks to MLK day on Monday. (yea, you want a government job)  The weekend will be pretty busy.  I will be going to the NDN Half Marathon on Sunday to help out with the timing.  I am not doing the timing for this race although I certainly could.  The biggest reason I’m not is because of the DAG chips habit of having a few fail every race.  This race is too high profile for that sort of stuff to happen. It’s supposed to be quite chilly Sunday morning.  I won’t make the same mistake I did last year where I was woefully under-dressed for the temperatures.  I spent the entire race chilled to the bone, it was miserable.

On Saturday I am going for a massage.  I got gift certificates for two of them for Christmas/birthday.  I have had very few professional massages in my life.  I can probably count them on one hand.  I always enjoy them immensely but have had very few of them because of the costs involved.  I’ve always been massaged by a woman. I couldn’t do the man thing.  I have various body parts that could use some attention.  I’m looking forward to it.

Sunday afternoon is the big game.  I’ll be glued to the TV from 3 o’clock on.  It would be a fantastic thing for the fairy tale to continue.

Not only is Randall coming over for Ali’s 6k race at the end of the month, there is a possibility that Jeremy could be coming over as well.  He could be serving as the official race photographer.  He does that sort of stuff on the side.  It could make for a fun time.  I have already thrown down the Wii gauntlet, challenging both of them to no holds barred, brutal electronic battle.  They both may have a few years on me but I have a few tricks up my sleeve, like making them sleep in the same bed.

Last night I had Ali laughing very hard on two occasions.  The first time was when we were doing a group aerobic workout with “My Fitness Coach” There were a couple moves that I simply could not do.  They weren’t overly complicated, my brain just short circuited when I would do them.  I looked ridiculous as I struggled to perform what should be a simple move.  I just couldn’t do it.  We were both dripping wet after the half hour work out.  It was probably not the smartest thing for me to do a tough cardio session after doing a leg workout at the gym during lunch.  Both of my knees are feeling less than stellar right now.

The second time she broke out laughing so hard that she almost spit out her water was watching my “music video” I created with Wii Music. I overdubbed my performance so that I was playing all 5 instruments during the song, Daydream Believer.  The lead in the performance was me on a pair of castanets.  As I snapped and danced away I had my character yelling out little outbursts that just look and sound ridiculous.  The visual was too much for Ali to bear.  It was quite funny.

I spent over an hour fooling around in Wii Music.  It’s very cool.  I had another moment of coordination frustration as I was going through drum lessons.  Drumming is quite realistic as it allows you to utilize the Wii Fit board to control the foot pedals.  I got through the first several lessons fine but then I got to a drill where you are utilizing both feet and both hands alternately.  Again, I was physically unable to perform the movement. It drove me nuts.

I can only theorize that when I run into these sort of roadblocks it’s related to whatever is cross-wired in my head that prevents me from closing my right eye independently of my left.  I simply can not do it for some reason.

Only 5 more days until my Bush countdown counter finally reaches zero.  I’ve been waiting for this day for a loooong time.  I pity Obama in a way though.  Never in my lifetime do I remember an incoming president having to inherit a bigger cluster f than what he is.  He has so many fires to put out it is staggering.  He appears to be chomping at the bit to start fixing the mess W has left behind.  Let’s hope he can pull it off.  At least he won’t come off as a moron when he speaks about what he is doing.

Speaking of which, did you happen to hear the prolonged interview Bush did recently regarding his time in office?  I heard bits and pieces of it on the radio.  He just comes of as SUCH an incompetent boob when he tries to express anything that requires more than two sentences.  He was defending his presidency which is laughable in itself.  Go off now George back to your ranch.  I’m sure he can find another thing to run into the ground just like his multiple failed business ventures and our country. Adios asshole.

Bubba the Love Sponge, the DJ that I have listened to in the afternoons on Sirius has now landed on morning terrestial radio in SW Florida.  Last year he was pulling double duty, doing a morning show on terrestial radio that was heard in several Florida markets and an afternoon show that was broadcast nationally over satellite.  It looked like he was not going to get re-signed to Sirius because of contract issues, namely money.  Sirius-XM is in dire financial straits as evidenced by their stock price, they don’t have much money to throw around.

At the last minute they announced they were keeping Bubba, sort of. Instead of Bubba doing two live shows a day, one on conventional radio and one on satellite,  Sirius listeners instead get to hear a re-broadcast of his morning show four days a week.  It is less than ideal for Sirius listeners but better than nothing.  On Fridays he will broadcast his only live satellite show each week.  Sirius listeners have been belly aching about having to listen to a terrestial show that is bound by all the restrictions it has like no swearing and tighter controls over subject matter.  After hearing a few days of the terrestial show I have found that I actually kind of prefer it over his satellite show.  When the chains are off, Bubba sort goes over the top with the swearing to the point where it gets annoying.  Every other word doesn’t need to be F.

Like I said, this year he has expanded into the SWFL market, landing on K-rock, where Howard Stern used to be when he was on terrestial radio.  It’s sort of ironic.  It at least gives me a terrestial radio option in the morning that is entertaining.

On the radio entertainer subject, I am still reading Artie Lange’s book, Too Fat to Fish.  I had mentioned that I found the first few chapters below expectations.  Now that I am up to the years where he is just insanely buried in his drug abuse,  it’s downright scary reading just how out of control the guy is.  The abuse he has inflicted on himself and others both mentally and physically due to his inability to control his addictive tendencies is just beyond logical explanation.  His list of addictions is huge, gambling, drinking, smoking, eating, drugs… You name it, he is addicted to it.  Listening to him on the radio you can appreciate his good qualities but reading his book puts a bright spotlight on the very dark core that is underneath it all.  The guy is just a mess on every imaginable level.

I had a techno-win over the weekend.  I received my replacement system board for my Dirt Dog that most recently sunk to the bottom of the pool.  I had to rip the robot almost all the way down to replace the board.  I was worried that I would not remember how it all went back together since I had ripped out the old board a couple weeks prior.  With some help from the tear down instructions on Roomba Exchange, I was able to get it all back together.  I held my breath when I inserted that battery and pressed the power button.  It fired right up and went on it’s happy cleaning way, whew.

So to catch up since Dad pulled out..

On Friday afternoon I started on the unfun task of pulling down the Christmas lights outside.  Putting them up took several hours of work.  Taking them down took less time although I still probably put a couple hours into the project.  At first I was trying to be somewhat neat in the light storage process.  I worked on wrapping the lights in an orderly fashion around pieces of cardboard.  However as time went on my patience was wearing thin.  By the time I was done I didn’t give a shit if the lights were a tangled mess, I’ll straighten it out next year.

On Saturday I ripped down a good chunk of the indoor stuff while Ali was out.  When she got back we finished up, ripping down the tree and everything else.  I discovered that it is physically impossible to put an artificial tree back in it’s original box after you remove it.  So the tree now is in three different garbage bags propped up in the garage until we can get a big bag or something.  I didn’t find myself being as depressed as I have been some past years during the de-Christmatizing process.  Yea it was a bit of a bummer but there is always next year.

I also went to Best Buy on Saturday to spend some of the gift cards I got over the holidays on some Wii stuff.  One of the things I grabbed was Wii Speak, an accessory for the Wii that allows voice communication with other Wii buddies.  After I got home I opened up the box and groaned.  There was no Wii Speak.  All that was in the box was the plastic bag and instructions.  Someone ripped off the actual device, great.  Instantly images ran through my head about how much of a pain in the ass this was going to be.  I’d have to take to Best Buy, a store that generally sucks when it comes to customer service and explain to them that I bought a box that was empty.  I pictured them not believing my story.  I decided I didn’t want to go back out to handle it the same day.  I’ll go back on Sunday instead.

When I went back I explained to the gum chomping, chubby girl at the counter what happened.  She instantly had to call the manager on duty who was an older little woman that sort of looked like a garden gnome.  I again explained that although the box was closed, when I opened it the device was not there.  She looked me up and down presumably evaluating if I was shady or not.  She told me with a sigh and a frown “go, get another one…”  Once I retrieved it I asked if we could open this one just to make sure.  I figured it would make me seem more “legitimate”.  This box did indeed contain the Wii Speak.  Even though I did nothing wrong, the experience made me feel dirty, just because I knew the gnome thought I could be bullshitting her.

Saturday night we went over to our former neighbor’s new place to hang out. We had a good time with him and his new partner.  A lot of beer was consumed on my part and we played a lively game called Bullshit.  It was cool because we brought Nicki with so she got to see her dog pal Zoe. I drank enough that Ali drove home. 

Wow how about that Eagles game?  I knew the Eagles could win, hell they kicked the Giants ass a month prior.  However this was when it really matters which is a time I am used to the Eagles falling apart.  The game followed a similar pattern as the Vikings game.  It was back and forth for about 2/3 of the game and then the Eagles D closed the door while the offense made enough plays to win.  Eli Manning sucked.  You would think he wasn’t playing at his own home stadium and wasn’t used to the gusting winds.  He was constantly throwing lame duck passes that were getting knocked down by the wind.  Donovan was struggling as well for most of the game but connected on some big throws late. 

The game was won however by the defense.  The two 4th down stops against the Giants were HUGE and broke their back.  The defense also caused a couple turnovers that proved to be big as well.  It was a GREAT win.  I was surprised and disappointed when Donovan pulled the picking up the phone stunt on the Giants sideline after the outcome of the game was decided.  It was a low class move that I would expect from an asshole like TO or Chad Johnson.  In his post game interview when asked about it he admitted that it was probably poor judgement.

 Regardless the Birds are now lined up against another team whose appearance in the championship game was highly unlikely, the Arizona Cardinals.  The Cardinals SUCKED during the last third of the season, including a spanking they received at the hands of the Eagles on Thanksgiving night.  Somehow they have managed to turn things around during their first two playoff games, beating teams that I was sure were better than them.  It would be easy to say the Eagles should spank them since they spanked them before.  I’m making no such assumptions.  I’m hopeful but not confident.  This entire post season has just been icing on the cake.  If they would happen to lose to the Cardinals the Birds still would have accomplished far more than I imagined was possible.

After the game we went out to another Best Buy to grab a game the Naples store did not have, “My Fitness Coach”.  We have had the Wii Fit for around 5 weeks and during that time I have been able to further access the game’s strengths and weaknesses.

Here are the positives.  The game is great for getting fitness novices off their ass and into some exercise.  The Wii Fit board is a fantastic device.  The ability to get immediate feedback on your weight and balance is very cool and helpful.  Setting a goal and having the system be able to track your progress or lack there of is great for motivation.  The game does a good job again at helping novices learn how to do different yoga and strength exercises.  It will hold your hand each step of the way.  There is a nice mix of different types of activities and some of the balance and aerobic games are a lot of fun to both do and watch someone else do. (hula hoop)

The negatives.  All of the hand holding and various screens that you have to go through before doing each exercise slows the entire process down.  In order to get a half hour of documented exercise time you will probably spend close to 45 minutes of actual time.  There is no variety in the environments or music that is used in the game.  It can get a bit maddening.  Same goes with the dialogue the trainers use, it is not diverse enough and gets very repetitive over time.  The way the game determines your Wii Fit age isn’t very sensible or accurate.  It has you do a couple balance exercises.  My Wii Fit age has fluctuated wildly from a low of 24 up to upper 40’s.

Enter “My Fitness Coach”.  If Wii Fit is exercise on training wheels, My Fitness Coach is exercise on roller blades.  I read reviews of the game that got me interested, supposedly it was much more intense than Wii Fit.  One negative about the game is it doesn’t have any tie ins with the Wii Fit board which is a bummer.  If the game supported the board it would be close to perfect.

The first thing you do is go through a pretty extensive fitness evaluation.  In Wii Fit it basically just asks you your age, height and weighs you.  In MFC you enter this information as well as taking tape measurements of your biceps, chest, waist, hips and thighs.  You also measure your resting heart rate and then the game has you do 2 minutes of jumping jacks to get an elevated heart rate.  You aren’t done yet, it has you do a rapid fire sequence of  body weight squats, push ups and crunches to see how many you can do.  Just doing the body test got me breathing as hard as I ever do doing a full regimen of Wii Fit exercises.

After doing the test, “Maya” the trainer recommends what your focus should be. I was surprised when she recommend I work on my upper body strength, which is pretty good already.  After that you set up a proposed work out schedule.   I decided to do a quick aerobic workout.  This is where you can really tell the game is real exercise.  You can set your work out time in 15 minute increments.  Unlike Wii Fit that uses much more real time than exercise time, MFC is one continuous work out, no constantly hitting buttons and pointing to go to the next exercise. If you want to work out for a half hour you get a solid half hour work out, no f’ing around.  You also get a count down timer on screen at various times to let you know how much longer you have to go.  

There is only one trainer available but her verbal skills seem to be far advanced of the few phrases the Wii Fit trainers know. Another cool thing is the game asks you what training devices you have like hand weights, a heart rate monitor, exercise ball or step.  If you indicate you have any of these items it will try to incorporate them into your work out.

There is also tons more diversity in location and music.  As you fulfill your fitness commitments more and more work out venues and music become available.  If in the middle of a workout you can’t stand the music that is playing you can stop for a second and change the music track.  The aerobic work out I did was very fast paced and high energy, almost a little too high energy for a guy with creaky knees.  There was lots of hopping and jumping around.  At the end of 15 minutes I was sweated through my shirt.  I can only imagine after a solid 60 minutes what I would look like.

There are only a few negatives I could point out about the game.  You need a LOT of floor space in front of your TV if you want to simulate some of Maya’s moves.  We are lucky to have that however many people may find they need to clear out some furniture to have enough space. There is not much hand holding when it comes to learning the moves, she just does them.  I found myself struggling at times to execute the various moves correctly. I’m sure that will get better over time.  The stretching/yoga poses are not held long enough.  It seemed she would only stay in one position for a few seconds before jumping to the next.

  The graphics are rough but that is to be expected with many Wii games.  You aren’t playing the game to look at pretty pictures anyway.  And of course like I mentioned earlier, the ability to use the Wii Fit board would have been a huge bonus. Unlike Wii Fit that can tell if you are doing movements based on the feedback from the board, MFC has no way of knowing if you are moving around or sitting on the couch eating a bag of chips.

All in all I think My Fitness Coach is great title for people that have graduated from Wii Fit and are looking for a more serious challenge.  MFC WILL kick your ass if you want it to.

At this point I will probably be using the Wii Fit to track my progress primarily and MFC to act as my virtual trainer.  More reports to come.

Here are the combined pictures Teresa and myself took during the visit, enjoy.

I forgot to mention my Dad lost his checkbook while he was down here.  Over the years he has a long and fabled history of losing important items like check books, keys and wallets.  After jumping through all of the hoops like contacting the bank to notify them of the loss and calling the casino, we actually found it two days later when we stopped back at the bank we were at earlier in the week.  He somehow managed to leave it sitting on a counter.  Luckily it was turned in.

Dad doesn’t view his carefree method of keeping track of important items as a problem. Rather it just adds to the “experience” of life.

Wow it feels like I last posted years ago.  Obviously with a ten or so day hiatus there are tons of things I could cover.  Instead of going day by day I am going to try to just cover highlights and not necessarily in chronological order.  Otherwise this thing would just ramble on forever.

Dad, Teresa and their two dogs, Maggie and Clara rolled into town Friday afternoon.  We figured Nicki would go through her normal process when someone/thing comes into the house, bark like mad and be scared.  However we must have spent enough time with them when we were out west for Nicki to permanently register them on the “good” list. She remembered them right away and within minutes she was out back playing with the two other dogs in the yard. Nicki also warmed right back up to Dad and Teresa.

We intentionally didn’t have tons of activities already lined up.  We have found in the past that if we have guests down with a long agenda already in the works it makes for a less then enjoyable time where both the guest and ourselves are stressed and tired by the end of it. The tentative list had these items on it, go the casino and take the dogs to the beach, that’s it.  After that we figured the seven days would take care of themselves.

The dogs provided quite a bit of entertainment themselves.  Taking them out and playing with them was a regular activity that we spent quite a bit of time doing.  Maggie is a ball retrieving fiend.  She will play ball till she literally falls over if you let her.  The one gift we bought for their dogs came in handy, a Chuck-it. The device functions as a long extension to your arm, allowing you to throw a tennis ball quite far with little effort.  It also has the bonus feature of allowing you to throw a dirty, slobber coated ball without touching it.  You simply press the scoop onto the ball and you are ready to go.

Clara is the more mischievous of the two dogs.  Maggie, while she is very high energy, is also very obedient.  Clara is even higher energy but lacks the obedience aspect.  As soon as she arrived she decided to use our small pond as psuedo drinking fountain and tub.  She came out of the pond covered in sludge from the bottom.  I quickly erected a make shift barrier made out of posts, screening and landscape fabric.  It did nothing to keep her out.  During their visit she had to be chased out of the pond at least a dozen times.

One of the things we typically do when we have guests during the winter months is turn on the pool heater since although the air temperature is warm, the pool water can drop into the 60’s.  This time was no exception and I had the heater running for most of the week cranking the pool water to over 90 degrees.  We just happened to get our electric bill a couple days ago.  It almost crossed 300 bucks just from running the heater for that time period, crazy.

The only dog that would willingly go into the pool was Maggie.  She would dive into the pool after balls repeatedly.  Clara fell in accidentally and after that she was scared to go in. Nicki watched all of the craziness safely from the pool deck.    I believe everyone used the pool at least once during the week so I guess it was worth it.

Patrick arrived on Saturday.  He just graduated from Pitt a couple weeks prior and had some dead time before starting up his new job on January 19th.  Pat is funny.  Around me he is typically very reserved and quiet. However from being on his Facebook friend list I have been witness to the many crazy things he has been involved in.  Evidently alcohol is the key to unlocking this aspect of Patrick’s personality.

The first couple days we did a lot of just hanging around at the house, eating meals there, playing with the dogs and things of that nature.  I introduced everyone to the Wii as well.  Pat and I had some good tennis and baseball games going and I even got my Dad and Teresa involved in both a game of bowling as well as boxing matches.  The Mii I made of my Dad is funny as hell, it’s all moustache.  I demonstrated some Wii Fit activities to them as well but none of them seemed that interested in trying it out first hand.

Dad and Teresa got the official guest bedroom.  Patrick got to stay in the hobby/workout room.  We slid the treadmill over to make room for the two blow up mattresses we stacked on top of each other.  It wasn’t so bad for him, he even had a tv in there.

One of the things that occupied a lot of time over that first weekend was watching the NFL play offs.  We watched most of each game and of course the Eagles win.  That game was a nail biter back and forth for quite awhile.  In retrospect I don’t know how close it should have been considering how terrible the Vikings QB appeared to be.  It was a great win where the Birds did what they had to to close out the game when it mattered, something I am not accustomed to.

We decided  to make Monday our casino day.  Ali volunteered to stay home and dog sit while we indulged our vices.  Patrick never gambled legally before so this was a first for him.  I set my limit low, withdrawing 100 bucks and vowing to not go beyond that, Pat had 100 to spend as well. Dad took out much more although I’m not sure what number he allocated to gambling.

I hadn’t been out at the casino for a long time, well over a year.  Since my last visit the casino has gotten Vegas-style slots as well as blackjack which I was excited about.  They also are in the middle of a big renovation in anticipation of bigger crowds as more table games are brought into the casino.  Patrick got carded instantly as we entered the door.  Not only do they look at your license, they also scan it on some machine that I guess validates it.

One thing I didn’t miss was the smokey haze in a casino, it just reeks.  So after some circling we found an empty table.  The lowest table they had was the $10 variety which I wasn’t thrilled with.  I much prefer $5 dollar tables.  With a $10 minimum my 100 dollars would not be able to ride out any substantial cold streaks.  It turned out my worries came to fruition.  We had a lot of just plain bad luck.   I don’t think I won more than two hands in a row.  The dealer was constantly getting 3,4 and 5 card 21’s.  Even when the dealer was showing a terrible card like a 5 or 6 she would quite often wind up winning.  It was maddening.  I played the odds all the way but it did me no good.  Within 20 minutes I had burned through my $100.  I actually reached in my wallet and snagged a 20 that was not allocated to gambling and lost that instantly after two consecutive losses.  It was frustrating.

Patrick had a bit of a run of beginner’s luck and was still playing after I was relegated to spectator duty.  His luck eventually ran out as well.  Dad’s luck was as bad as ours, the only difference was he had a bigger bankroll.  By the time we stopped for lunch he was three bills in the hole.  After lunch he sat back down at a different table for a bit while we cheered him on.  He managed to get 70 bucks of his losses back.  Teresa stuck to playing slots and had zero luck there as well.  Our total time in the casino including lunch was maybe two hours.  None of us left there feeling great about the experience.

 Our next big event of the week was going up to Sanibel to a dog friendly beach.  The party van repeatedly was a life saver during their visit.  It was the only vehicle that could have possibly accommodated five human beings and three canines.  The drive to Sanibel was very long, over an hour, but it was scenic.  Finally we arrived and made our way down to the water.  Sanibel is a beautiful, natural location, devoid of much of the beautiful but man made landscaping that adorns much of the Naples area, instead Sanibel relies on Florida’s natural habitat. We walked by a shark sighting warning on our way to the shoreline.

We found a suitable place to set up and before long Dad and the dogs were walking down the beach.  Sanibel is a dog friendly beach with the only rules being the dog has to be leashed and you have to pick up after it of course.  Well it didn’t take long for Dad to ignore the leash rule as I knew he would.  He walked well down the beach before allowing Maggie off the leash.  She was free to swim in the gulf.  Dad brought a rubber frisbee along for her to play with. Unfortunately it didn’t float and he lost it out to sea after a little while.

For the majority of the time we just sort of hung out  on our blanket/chairs and enjoyed the fact that we were on a beach, in January.  The weather was perfect with low humidity and temps a hair over 80. We set up a makeshift dog shelter by draping a big blanket over the backs of the chairs.  Black labs get very warm very quickly in those sort of conditions.

Two and a half hours at the beach was plenty, all of us were starting to bake.  We headed back to the van and went to an eating establishment Ali found online that was dog friendly.  We had a very enjoyable meal there and then afterward headed right next door to a dog store Ali also found online.  The place boasted of dog bath facilities which we thought would be a good idea after time on the sandy beach.  None of the dogs were thrilled with the impromptu bath session but they all tolerated it.

On Wednesday morning Pat, Dad and I went to my gym.  Pat has developed into quite the fitness nut over the years.  During his visit with us he went out on a couple of runs.  He has had some recent knee problems and spent a lot of time tending to them.  He was constantly alternating between icing the knee, wrapping the knee and stretching the knee. He also is quite strong.  Dad said he has benched over 300 pounds, quite a feat for a kid that only weighs around 170.

Anyway, we had good workout session although we each mostly did our own thing.  Pat does a rapid fire, somewhat random routine where he tries to cover all of his body parts.  I did some benching with Dad but then also tried to hit most body parts since it was my only official work out of the last 10 days.  We spent over 90 minutes and all had a good sweat going when we were done. When I lived up north, Dad and I would work out together on a semi-regular basis.  I sort of miss that.

On Wednesday evening we all went out to Carraba’s for a meal.  I paid for 95% of it with gift cards I received for Xmas and my birthday.  My Dad ALWAYS wants to pay for everything.  It was nice for him to be able to keep his wallet away for once.  We even had the wait staff come out and sing to him for his birthday since it was on Saturday.

Patrick flew back out on Thursday afternoon but before he did we had our last “big” thing, a trip to nearby Corkscrew Sanctuary. Both my Dad and Teresa are into nature so we figured they would like it.  I’m not sure how into it Pat was.  Ali and I had just been there a few weeks prior.  It turned out that for what it would have cost us to buy 5 individual entries, we were able to instead by a one year family pass that will allow Ali and I to go as often as we want over the next year, pretty sweet.

We took our time walking the boardwalk, taking a lot of pictures along the way.  Just like the last visit Ali and I had, the wildlife was not all that abundant.  For the first time we didn’t see a single adult alligator, only a couple babies three feet long or shorter.  Still, it was a nice relaxing way to wind up the visit. I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

After dropping Pat off at the airport for his trip back to cold Pittsburgh we headed home for another evening at the homestead.  I made burgers on the grill and we enjoyed some salad with lettuce from our garden.  I watched some of the BCS championship game with Dad.  I only stayed up for the first half, he watched the whole thing.  Good for Florida I guess.  I didn’t care all that much who won, especially after watching Penn State get marauded by USC.

Friday morning Dad and Teresa got all packed up and were on the road somewhere around 10 am.  They both said they had a really good time.  Although the dogs couldn’t talk, we knew they had a lot of fun as well.  I think Dad was somewhat remorseful heading back to New Mexico and all the work that awaits him there as well as the cold temperatures.  I felt pangs of sadness as the crew all loaded up into the truck and slowly pulled away. It’s tough only being able to see them annually at best.   On their trip home they plan to make a pit stop in New Orleans for a little sight seeing. They will probably pull back into their place 2000 miles away later this week.

Both Ali and I really enjoyed having them down.  It was the first visitors we hosted in quite awhile outside of my mom.  I’ll cover the few days since their departure later, it will give me something to say. Pics are coming.  I have many more topics to cover like the third huge Eagles win in as many weeks, more Best Buy bullshit, de-Chrismatizing and “My Fitness Coach”….

Nuff said…..